Product Description

Written by one of the world’s leading Kant scholars, this compelling introduction begins with an overview of Kant’s life and moves on to explore his theories of transcendental idealism and arguments about nature of beauty and the sublime.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #458685 in Books
• Published on: 2006-06-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 456 pages

Review

‘…this is the clearest, most comprehensive book on Kant’s "critical philosophy" written in English…Guyer’s book is clearly written and keeps enough distance from Kant’s texts to be helpful to nonspecialists; it also stays close enough to be nuanced and valuable even for Kant specialists.’ A. N. Bunch, Choice

‘Kant is an absolutely first-rate general introduction to Kant's Critical Philosophy. Paul Guyer's interpretations are extremely well-supported, carefully and crisply argued, and highly insightful’ Robert Hanna, University of Colorado

‘An impressive overview of the various strands of Kant’s philosophy. With great skill Guyer manages to compress Kant’s critical thought into a few hundred pages. This book will provide an excellent introduction to Kant’s thought.’ Philip Stratton-Lake, University of Reading

‘The book is impressive in very many ways. It demonstrates a mastery of the Kantian corpus and an ability to explain exceedingly complex arguments in a clear and accessible fashion. I think it will become essential reading for students wanting to grasp the broad sweep of Kant’s thought without losing much by way of depth.’ Andrew Chignell, Cornell University

‘That Guyer is able to cover this much material, clearly and without oversimplification, in a single, reasonably sized volume represents a unique accomplishment, which should prove to be extremely useful to a broad audience’ Eric Watkins, University of California, San Diego

‘This is the clearest, most comprehensive book on Kant’s "critical philosophy" written in English…Guyer’s book is clearly written and keeps enough distance from Kant’s texts to be helpful to nonspecialists; it also stays close enough to be nuanced and valuable even for Kant specialists.’ A.N. Bunch, Choice

'Kant is an absolutely first-rate general introduction to Kant's Critical Philosophy. Paul Guyer's interpretations are extremely well-supported, carefully and crisply argued, and highly insightful.' Robert Hanna, University of Colorado, USA

‘An impressive overview of the various strands of Kant’s philosophy. With great skill Guyer manages to compress Kant’s critical thought into a few hundred pages. This book will provide an excellent introduction to Kant’s thought.’ Philip Stratton-Lake, University of Reading, UK

‘That Guyer is able to cover this much material, clearly and without oversimplification, in a single, reasonably sized volume represents a unique accomplishment, which should prove to be extremely useful to a broad audience.’ Eric Watkins, University of California, San Diego, USA

From the Back Cover

In this outstanding introduction, Paul Guyer uses Kant’s central conception of autonomy as the key to all the major aspects and issues of Kant’s thought.

Beginning with a helpful overview of Kant’s life and times, Guyer introduces Kant’s metaphysics and epistemology, carefully explaining his arguments about the nature of space, time and experience in his most influential but difficult work, The Critique of Pure Reason. He offers an explanation and critique of Kant’s famous theory of transcendental idealism and shows how much of Kant’s philosophy is independent of this controversial doctrine.

He then examines Kant’s moral philosophy, his celebrated ‘Categorical imperative’ and his theories of duty, freedom of will and political rights. Finally, he covers Kant’s aesthetics, in particular his arguments about the nature of beauty and the sublime, and their relation to human freedom and happiness. He also considers Kant’s view that the development of human autonomy is the only goal that we can conceive for both natural and human history.

Customer Reviews

Not for beginners
I have been reading other titles in the series (Rousseau and Hegel) and, for this one, I could not go past the first big chapter on Kant's Copernician revolution.

The author definitively seems to know what he is talking about. However he spends so much time discussing whether Kant's transcendental idealism is valid that it is hard to know what Kant meant. Moreover, sentences are often very long and quite difficult to follow with Kant's technical vocabulary.

If you are, as I was, a total beginner with Kant, I advise you to read Wood's 'Kant' which is demanding AND rewarding. Wood does address controversies and debates about Kant's philosophy, but does so in separate sections.

Nevertheless, I feel now that I could read Guyer's book, since I know a bit more and Guyer seems to be a renowned Kant's scholar.